That's a great question. Trello is an online tool to help you keep information organized, collaborate with others, and track your progress on projects.
Trello is used by many companies and businesses to keep track of projects they work on, but it can also be used for personal use like in genealogy research. |
Here are some great features and what you can do with Trello:
- To-do lists: Each card can contain checklists. You can even use each card as a to-do item.
- Card descriptions: You can provide as much info as you want on the card description, including text markdown (headers, bold, italics, bulleted and numbered lists, links, and images). You can learn more about markdown formatting here.
- Due Dates: Add due dates to your cards so you can keep track of when you need to accomplish tasks. Get notified when your due dates are coming up to help you stay on track.
- Attachments: Attach any kind of file to your cards for easy access.
- Comments: Whether you are using Trello by yourself or you end up inviting family and friends to your boards, you can use the comments section to either keep a log for yourself or collaborate back and forth with others.
- Labels: Labels is one of my favorite features in Trello. I use labels on every single board and card. Labels are Trello's way to "tagging" your cards. You can see the labels on the front of your cards to quickly see on your board. You can also filter cards by labels, so if I only want to see cards relating to my Ivory family I can do so.
- Power-Ups: Trello's Power-Ups are probably one of the most power features of Trello. Power-Ups are made by Trello as well as third-party developers to add even more functionality and power to Trello. Some Power-Ups include:
- Dropbox: Link your Dropbox account to Trello so you can attach Dropbox files to your cards. The attachments in Trello will always be up-to-date with the files in your Dropbox
- Custom Fields: Add any kind of custom field you can think of to your Trello cards using text, date, number, dropdown, and checkbox fields.
- Calendar: View all of your card's due date in a calendar view.
- Card Repeater: Do you have repeating tasks in your research such as backing up your genealogy files, writing blog posts or family news letters, or scanning photos? Use the Card Repeater Power-Up to automatically create the same card for you each day, week, or month so you don't have to.
- Evernote: Attach Evernote pages to your Trello cards for easy access.
Need Inspiration?
Do you need some inspiration on how you can use Trello in your genealogy research? Check out my inspiration board below. I have several other genealogy Trello boards. I will be adding them in the near future.
My GenealogyI use this board for my general to-dos, projects, and documents I need to order or obtain from the Family History Library.
Even though this board is used to keep track of to-dos and projects, I still use my research logs to record my research findings.
This board is just an example of my real board I use. The examples on this board are real items from my private board, but I have removed some cards from this example board due to privacy reasons. Be sure to check out the "how to use" cards on this board, which provide more information and instructions on how to use the board.
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Although Trello can be used for literally everything in your life, I am going to discuss here how you can use it for your genealogy research. Before diving into my guides and tutorials on how to use Trello in your genealogy, you should check out their amazing guide on getting started with Trello.
Stay tuned for blog posts and more guides on how you can use Trello in your genealogy research.
Questions or Comments about Trello?
Do you use Trello in your genealogy research? Do you have specific questions on how to use Trello? Let's chat!